REC Slovakia

Name:REC SlovakiaCountry office: SlovakiaEstablished: 1992

Current staff

Matthias Puhringer, Acting Country Office Director

Simona Nadasiova, Junior Expert

Scope of work

REC Slovakia was established in January 1992 by the Regional Environmental Center. Since its establishment, REC Slovakia has successfully cooperated with a wide range of important environmental non-governmental organisations, government bodies, municipalities and scientific institutions.

A significant proportion of REC Slovakia’s work is devoted to enhancing the attractiveness and quality of the urban environment, and defining criteria, principles and tools for sustainable urban open spaces. This work includes awareness raising and the development of an exchange platform on knowledge and expertise on urban open spaces, as well as the development of an assessment tool investigating climate change vulnerabilities and risks in urban areas.

In 2010, REC Slovakia will organise the national competition “Capital of Biodiversity” and will also work on the concept for the award at European level and the implementation of a monitoring system based on a list of indicators to evaluate biodiversity in cities.

Another important area of work is the improvement of the energy performance of buildings while maintaining the lowest possible energy consumption levels using a combination of technical measures. REC Slovakia is involved in the process from planning to high-quality education.

The country office is also involved in creating interest in small hydropower generation facilities with high environmental standards, and identifying the main problems and feasibility issues.

REC Slovakia has gradually built up its own network and cooperates with many experts in the realisation of projects focusing on sustainable development at regional and local levels. The reputation of REC Slovakia has been strengthened through its successful applications for funding from a variety of donors: the European Commission (ERDF-Central Europe Programme, INTERREGs, LIFE, DG Environment); the Slovak Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Construction and Regional Development; the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); the Civil Society Foundation; the Embassy of the Netherlands; the British Embassy; the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN); and the Ekopolis Foundation.

Country office expertise

REC Slovakia has built up its expertise through the implementation of projects related to: